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LiDAR for Air Quality Measurement

This project proposes to investigate a unique light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology for ambient air quality measurement of particulate matter (PM) using a state-of-the-art elastic LiDAR from NASA Langley Research Center. The special system measures vertically, horizontally, long range and at a very high resolution. This unique advantage of obtaining continuous measurements of PM in the atmosphere and at a long range simultaneously is not available today with the alternative PM measurement technologies. By adopting this system, large datasets of PM measurements will be collected very cost-effectively for an urban area in areas such as ports or tunnel entrances, which will then allow the project to analyze the variation in particulate matter distribution over time and space, and in relation to the variation in traffic levels. Simultaneously, the project will operate the LiDAR system at the selected hot-spots (e.g. port with high volume of diesel truck traffic) and perform similarity analysis between the different measurements acquired during different day and weather conditions. The project will classify the percentage of the PM particles that are related to diesel engines exhaust and derive their distributions during various environmental and traffic conditions. When combined with land use and traffic flow activity, significant results about sustainable land usage practice can be obtained. Finally, the project plans to obtain the variation in pollution levels in relation to traffic patterns at different locations in the Hampton Roads area.